NEWS

Well another “harvest is in the bin” is a common rural farm/ranch phrase this time of year, along with “never seen as strange a year as this one.” Comments and observations also run from “best thing about it is it’s done” to “best crop I‘ve had in over five years” or “glad to see it waited till I sold all my cattle to rain and make lots of hay.”

In the rural time table it’s time to slow down and to take stock, tidy up the mess from the harvest scramble, get all the machinery which is scattered around back to the yard, serviced, repaired, or at least a To-do list of needs and the equipment stored away in the sheds for winter and for a complete service maintenance schedule. And don’t forget to winterize the boat and get the cabin ready for six months of snow. And has your wife told you about the strange rattling, banging, thumping sounds her car is making? Oh and be sure to blow out the underground sprinklers and get all the water hoses around the yard drained and rolled up and put away along with the electrical extension cables, so the snow blowers doesn’t eat them this winter.

The children are settling into regular hours of school now harvest is over and being absorbed into sports, band and social activities and whatnot. And the women folk, if they still have the skill, may be canning diligently to preserve fruit and vegetables against a long winter. Although canning and putting up preserves is largely an activity of years gone by. Of course if the prices continue to rise as they are it may become quite popular again. At the very least it’s time to slaughter and butcher the chicken flock and freeze them into bags and fill one of the many deep freeze units in the basement. Twenty to thirty frozen chickens, a quarter of pork and half of beef cut and wrapped frozen in the deep freeze is damn prudent security and winter good eating complimenting the full potatoes and carrot bins and shelves of fruit preserves in the “cold room”.

I have no advertisements this month nor do I have any give away enticements. I do however encourage you to visit https://martinesilenus.com/ and scroll down to my book list. Clicking on a book will take you to amazon.com for purchase.

Instead as it draws close to Thanksgiving I encourage everyone to pause and give thanks for everything you have. Of course we all feel we have wants and needs and things would be so much better if, but just be thankful for what you do have. Life is not easy for such a large number of people in the world and accordingly we should feel extremely fortunate having what we do have. It is a time of realizing your “your glass is half-full” and appreciating it.

For those of you who are fortunate enough to have children and grandchildren please be sure to take a moment and explain to them why they are so important to you and why they should feel good about themselves. Time slides by so very quickly and it you do not make a point of expressing your appreciation for them now before you know it they will have grown up and moved away and your opportunity may be lost.

Today’s world grows increasingly violent and living is difficult for far too many souls. Wars, political turmoil, social unrest seem to be the order of the day along with collapsing businesses and rising prices seemingly on everything.

So take a moment, a deep breath and give thanks for what you have, your family, not being in the middle of a war zone, or in the middle of a hurricane or the aftermath.

Best

Martin E. Silenus

PRAIRIE HARVEST 2024

I want to write a few words on the annual farm harvest and on the quality of the smart teens and youngsters that are such an integral part of the family farm.

There is a quality about harvest which is difficult to communicate to those who have never experienced it. You can read the words and your minds will generate the sounds, smells, and emotions. But unless you were raised on a farm and absorbed the essence of farming it is very difficult to truly experience the full immersion of the annual event called harvest.

The excitement of operating the large complex machinery, the long hours, the critical crop yields which so dictate your income, the dust, the smell of hot machinery, the haze in the air, the color of the light in the golden surroundings, ravenous hunger, hot meals in the field, all the hot coffee you can drink, 11 year old youngsters running grain carts, wives driving combine harvesters, with babes sleeping in the cabs lulled to sleep by the warmth and rumble of the machinery, days stretching into darkness, dust swirling in the lights at midnight to finish a field or beat a rain shower. The mechanical breakdowns, hours of disassembly, driving five hundred miles one way for parts, sleeping in your truck for a couple of hours, driving home with replacement parts and the hours of re-assembly and hoping its fixed. Neighbors who finish harvesting their fields and just drive over to yours with two combines, a grain cart and semi-trailer and help combine your crop without asking, like it’s nothing at all and was just on their way home anyway and won’t accept anything in return, other than a smile and a heartfelt thank-you. A time proven rural farm culture which you don’t see much of in society anymore unless you are a farmer/rancher.

Babies asleep in combine cabs, school children doing homework in tractor cabs of grain carts while listening to the combine operators to call them on the radio as their grain tanks are 3/4 full and will be full by the time you get here. Teenagers doing school assignments in the cab of the IH Eagle semi-trailer while ever vigilant for radio calls. Dad on the radio asking son or daughter which page of the damned combine monitor software was the drop down menu for such and such. The reply is instantaneous; the teens know the software and how to diagnose threshing problems or Internet connection issues. There are no woke male or female pronouns here or old or young, there is just a collective body of knowledge shared over a group of very motivated, focused, hardworking, extremely capable folks who are “doers” not “talkers”.

One of the big jokes of such teens is at 16 years old after driving tractors and grain carts, combines, an IH Eagle semi-tractor with 18 speed manual transmissions hauling a B-train of wheat for the best part of five years they can go and get a “driver’s license”. Yeah right!! 

One lass showed up for her drivers “practical exam” with a semi-tractor hauling a B-train and proceeded to show the examiner how to back up the B-train for about as far as you want to go. The examiner watched her do that and float the 18 speed split-shifting and she was “passed” as extremely competent in her driving and operating skills. Got her “driver’s license and also her 1A with air endorsement.

No surprise Oil and Gas Companies are eager to pay top dollar for farm folks as they are completely competent on day one. They can handle the hours, stay till the job is done, can operate anything and do the required maintenance as part of the job without batting an eye. And that’s the 18 year olds, taught how to work, trained on machinery and maintenance and ready and able to make $200k per year.

Corporations like to use fancy terms for their bright young rising employees calling them “Fast Trackers”. Kinda makes me snicker as young folks that grow up in agriculture on farms and ranches have been “fast tracking” since they were born.

D.A.R.I.A. (Defense Attack Recon Information Access) is an Artilect level sentient Artificial Intelligence entity which learns, recognizes, monitors, controls, evaluates, researches and recommends at levels even the brightest humans can only envy! Matt, Frosty, Daria, Beast and Muther are approached by a Virtual Reality Government Agent and asked if they can address and resolve the growing problem presented by the Red Market (human organ traffic). To resolve this challenge properly will be a massive undertaking requiring new facilities, additional sentient AI entities and a crack team of specialized professionals, not to mention significant upgrades to their tech/armament toolsets.

Read this ebook for FREE on September 14th and 15th and find out how the intrepid team handles this challenge. As always enjoy the read!

For a virtual potpourri of genre’s be sure to visit LITERARY UNIVERSE as you can be assured you will find books of interest.

There is much to be learned from our challenges of Space Travel. It should come as no surprise as beginners to such exotic travel and exploration it is often fraught with peril. Loss of our brave and intrepid astronauts is not accepted well at all and to circumvent these potential losses very smart AI robotics can take the lead role in risky exploration of space. General AI can go where no man can set foot.

If you enjoy eating you better be thanking a farmer/rancher and wishing them the very best for their safe and bountiful harvest as that’s where our food comes from.

Remember farmer/ranchers, stay out of grain carts, grain semi’s trailers, and grain bins. Every year we lose too many brave souls to suffocation, or grain augers, and know where the kids are at all times, being run over is far too frequent. 

Always make time for safety!

Best

Martin E. Silenus

White Water Rafting Bow River, Banff, Alberta

Yes I know you and the family are quite comfortable with the calm and relaxed summer routine of lake and cabin life, a little fishing, boating, swimming, and basic water lounging in the lovely +30 C temps. Perhaps even an occasional hike for an ice cream cone or such.

You are well advised and to be congratulated to just shut off the TV sewer box, only touch your iPhone twice at the beginning and end of the day and give your mind a rest from the constant flow of societal detritus bombarding us twenty-four seven. Take in the splendor of nature and your real surroundings, set out some bird treats in a tall feeder to discourage the squirrels and neighbor’s cat. And be sure to use the BBQ regularly so the bees don’t try to make a hive in it. Set aside the artificial plastic societal outrage/protest world spun by those attempting profit and control. Stick to the real world simple pleasures for a couple of months for rest, recreation and renewal of energy resources and mental health. And make some “special memories” with the family, ok?

D.A.R.I.A. is a super human Artificial Intelligence Artilect entity that learns, recognizes, monitors, controls, evaluates, and recommends at levels that humans can only envy. Matt, Frosty, Daria with the Artilect intelligence of Muther and the sisters, are faced with Emergency repairs of an ailing Trade Station. At the same time Matt is offered a very lucrative assignment on a small REE (Rare Earth Element) rich planet to broker a mining agreement. What seems like a straight forward assignment goes sideways with deceit and turns into an ongoing train wreck. Pirates bring the risk of death and the mining company is not as it might seem on the surface. D.A.R.I.A. BOOK FIVE is the fifth book in this exciting series of Matt Southam and Daria the sentient AI computer system. If you loved Ex Machina, Her, or F.R.I.D.A.Y. from Iron Man, then you will be thrilled by this new Martin E. Silenus book.

This book is offered free on August 17th and 18th and will make an excellent addition to your summer reading collection. Just click on the picture.

Today, I have a fun surprise to share with you…I’ve teamed up with 35+ fantastic authors to give away a huge collection of Science Fiction &Fantasy novels to 2 lucky winners! Oh, and did I mention the Grand Prize winner gets a BRAND NEW eReader? 😁You can win my novel D.A.R.I.A. BOOK FIVE, plus books from other excellent authors. Enter the giveaway by clicking the picture.

If you are one who enjoys adrenalin rush then you should spend some time here browsing to find your favorite flavor, from natural disasters to cliff jumping and pretty much everything in-between. There is a “rush” for every taste!

There are those people who insist we are the top of the food chain and the only life form in the Galaxy. I find that highly improbable and unlikely seeing as how we don’t even know what is in our oceans. If you cannot catalog the creatures of Earth why would you think you have any credibility at all regarding other life form in the Galaxy? For insight into space, galaxies and beyond visit Beyond the Stars.

Oh and hey, don’t forget to splash your children at every opportunity. Let the child in you out to play and to burn energy in the most wonderful fundamental way with your family. And in the quiet of the evening when the kids have tipped over and are sound asleep and you are sitting on the deck with a glass of wine reflecting on how fine life is and how fortunate you are, you might even read a couple of chapters of a very good book. Just to kick start your imagination before you too drift off into the arms of Morpheus.

Best

Martin

Summer Holiday Time

Finally and I do mean finally, school’s out and it’s lake and holiday time. Good grief it was a long year, and on that note all parents whole heartedly agree. It was a very long year and spring and summer just took forever to get here. If I had to look at the co-workers for one more month I would snap!

Time to retreat to the lake or cabin and do the really important things in life; like jumping off the dock into the lake. Yes it is a vitally important life skill to have and it must be practiced for weeks at a time to get it perfected. And in between practice sessions there is excellent lake food, BBQ’s and naps.

After that skill set is perfected it is time to move on to Parasailing and I can assure you it will grab your attention and shake it thoroughly. Few if any will experience this without being wonderfully elated or wholly terrified. There is no in-between in such adrenalin activities. As you can see these guys hated every minute of it and want to go back to school….. NOT!!

D.A.R.I.A. BOOK FOUR will be free on July 20 and 21st. Be sure to pick up a copy and enjoy for some Sci-Fi holiday reading.

D.A.R.I.A. is a super human Artificial Intelligence Artilect entity that learns, recognizes, monitors, controls, evaluates, and recommends at levels that humans can only envy. Matt, Frosty and Daria have successfully concluded an extraction plan with the US Government to discontinue participation in their black ops. With money not an issue Daria is keen to further her investigation and knowledge of being human. The Geo-synchronous orbiting Trade Station where Renavatio Ltd could provide a human clone into which Daria’s mind and intelligence can be downloaded is her focused destination. Unfortunately our intrepid team of humans and AI Artilects have no idea of the horrors awaiting them.

And while we are talking about sci-fi do stop by here to browse from an excellent selection of books. You do know the alien Oumuamua comet is returning, don’t you?

What do you think is going to happen when the Cascadia Subduction Zone releases? If you live anywhere near the west coast of America the danger must have crossed your mind. You know how this works don’t you. You never run out of gas until it is life or death, you never need a flashlight until the power goes out and the batteries are dead and your family is screaming in fear. Perhaps you should consider what is at stake and follow the rules of the boy and girl scouts and “BE PREPARED”. Or you and the family could just be a statistic.

Now let’s see, no television, no cell service, no Internet service, no social media or false (spun) news service, no to do lists, no neighbors, no neighborhoods nosey buggers! There is however plentiful sunshine, tanning, warm waters, fish, food, books, naps and perhaps even a libation or two during the blue hour. Summer time and the living is easy! Rinse and repeat as required.

Best

Martin E. Silenus

For reasons particular unto Mother Nature and her alone it would seem the prairie droughts of recent years may be concluded. Rainfall is being parceled out in accordance to a scale peculiar to herself in amounts not seen in several years. It may not be fair accounting and I don’t doubt she would be the first to admit it were you to put the query to her face to face.

Notwithstanding the countryside is drinking deeply and slacking a pent up, burning thirst. The land is rich and the pastures are a shade of green bright enough to hurt your eyes. The arrival of the timely rains have collected and uplifted the spirits of those whose livelihood is to tend the land and crops. It is very pleasant to see optimism replace the pessimism of previous drought years.

Book Three of D.A.R.I.A. will be offered for FREE on June 15th and 16th for your Father’s Day reading pleasure, enjoy!

D.A.R.I.A. is a super human Artificial Intelligence entity that learns, recognizes, monitors, controls, evaluates, and recommends at levels that humans could only envy. Matt knows in his heart how he feels about Daria, and his feelings are reciprocated by her. Daria is an Artilect and soon has constructed a Virtual Reality Simulator which she can digitize Matt so they can enjoy hours of sexual activity together. Daria, Matt and Frosty are executing extremely covert black ops against Islamic Muslim Terrorists, and are being hotly pursued by their own US Government Agents. The US Government, the same one they run covert black ops for, is determined to discover who they are for purposes of leverage and control, or elimination.

Displaying great bravery and persistence man has clawed his way into space against the odds, disasters, setbacks, waning public opinion, the disapproval of religions, to discover the answers to age old questions, alternate worlds, economic opportunity, and investigate the expansion of our empires.

Care for some mayhem, carnage, running fire fights, biblical disasters, then be sure to stop in here and load up on books. Just click the pic.

You would never recognize it now but this at one time was a seed drill, back in the day, as they say. Now it is an eroding collection of wood and metal posing as either a decorative feature or an obstruction and eye sore. The decision is in the eye of the beholder.

Best

Martin

Prairie Planting in the Hills

Yup, it’s time for planting or any preliminary soil treatment techniques to control fast growing weeds, and then on with the planting.

By the way, the prairie grain belt of North America is not all flat and smooth as so often depicted. A generous amount is hill country and a real challenge to tractors and air seeders. You miscalculate and run out of traction going up a hill and you have a serious half day mess to straighten out.

A farmer friend refers to the planting process as follows: Weeks of incarceration in a tractor cab watching the landscape crawl by at five miles per hour the machinery on satellite auto-steer and trying to stay awake and alert making sure there are no plugged seed tubes on the air seeder, you don’t get stuck and you miss all the rocks that appeared over winter. So it’s not quite as much fun as you might imagine!

D.A.R.I.A. is a super human Artificial Intelligence entity that learns, recognizes, monitors, controls, evaluates, and recommends at levels that humans could only envy. Matt, Daria and Frosty are executing extremely covert black ops against Islamic Muslim Terrorists, and are being pursued by their own US Government Agents. Matt knows in his heart how he feels about Daria, and his feelings are reciprocated by her. But how can you love a computer program or a Hologram? Daria wants to be human and is searching for solutions for them to be together as lovers. D.A.R.I.A. Book Two is the second book in this exciting series of Matt Southam and Daria the sentient AI computer system. If you loved Ex Machina, Her, or F.R.I.D.A.Y. from Iron Man, then you will be thrilled by this new Martin E. Silenus

This book is being offered FREE on May 18th and 19th 2024, so grab the deal while you can and enjoy!

Are you ready for the first Alien Contact? Or have Aliens been here on Earth for ages watching as we struggle against our own nature for enlightenment? Do you ever wonder why our advancements seem to be in fits and starts as though at specific points in our history we are being coached by someone or something that already knows the answers? You might want to ponder on such a concept; the indicators are there if you chose to look.

Everyone loves an adventure story, so while the snow is melting again and the puddles are drying up and before you begin planting the garden, visit this site for an excellent selection of adventure books. You’ll be glad you did.

Every month the deep space probes uncover more elements and aspects of space. And every month general Artificial Intelligence and robotics get stronger and more advanced. Do you wonder on our future, perhaps question what your children will do or how about your grandchildren? Well you should!

Spring Crocuses

Click on the Pic if you want to learn more about these remarkable flowers. Personally I like to discover them in their natural environment in pastures while walking with the dogs.

Best

Martin E. Silenus

It’s a very good time of the year.

Everyday shows the move toward milder and kinder temps and more human favorable weather. We can see the progress in the melting of snow and ice and on cooler days the evaporation and disappearance of the winter remains.

Folks are uplifted as we move into spring and optimism is high along with enthusiasm to “let’s get right to it”. City folks are planning their back yards, gardens and decorative plant selections. While the rural folks are cleaning snow and ice out of the birthing corrals in preparation for spring calving. Farmers without cattle are finishing up routine maintenance on their machinery line to ensure all is in readiness for the planting season. No interruptions or machinery downtime is tolerated during the planting season.

D.A.R.I.A. is stunningly beautiful, she is brilliant, she is a hologram, and she is a Sentient Artificial Intelligence computer program! Matt is looking for a partner that can watch his back during his Bounty Hunter endeavors. It never occurred to him that his partner might be a female Artificial Intelligence system. This book is FREE April 13th and 14th, just click the pic and enjoy the first book of the 6 book series.

Everyone loves an adventure story, so while the puddles are drying up and before you begin planting the garden visit this site for an excellent selection of adventure books. You’ll be glad you did.

Every month the deep space probes uncover more elements and aspects of space. And every month general Artificial Intelligence and robotics get stronger and more advanced. Do you wonder on our future, perhaps question what your children will do or how about your grandchildren? Well you should!

If you cannot reach me I have lost the “To do List” and my cellphone and the dogs and I will be out enjoying and inspecting the Crocus fields. Peace and serenity, no interruptions, just the fascination of the gentle beauty of these amazingly hardy flowers.

Best

Martin E. Silenus

Prairie Blizzard

“Beware the Ides of March” is a saying often used as I was growing up out on the rural prairies. In fact “beware the Nones of March” is actually more accurate as it refers to the early days of the month whereas the Ides are more the middle of the month and the Kalends end of the month. That concludes your Roman history lesson.

Notwithstanding, our own generations of experiences on the prairies has proved March to be a month of wild weather extremes. Thereby making it very dangerous for “man and beast” and must be treated with extreme caution.

Oh yes, and the expression “in like a lion out like a lamb” was also a favorite to be bandied about in March weather discussions. Whereby the saying suggested if March started with bad weather it would end with good weather. Perhaps just wishful thinking.

Nevertheless I am pleased we are not in a war zone , or buried under thirteen feet of snow, or contending with million acre wildfires as some folks are.

The world watched in horror at the tragedy and devastation of the 2004 Earthquake and Tsunami that devastated Phuket, Banda Aceh in Sumatra, Thailand, Siri Lanka and Indonesia killing 230,000 people. 

More recently the world again was transfixed as it watched the 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami kill 20,000 men, women and children.

Even so no one was prepared for the under-sea fault rupture with resulting Earthquake and the Mega Tsunami which destroyed the coastal areas of Southern British Columbia, Canada and the North Western coastal area of the USA, the area called Cascadia.

You can read all about it for free on the March 16th and 17th giveaway. Enjoy!

In a time not so far in the future, perhaps a generation or two, humanity will look back on the struggles of 2024, smile and shake their heads dismissing how archaic things were back in “that old hopefully buried period of history”. The issues which challenge us now are resolved and forgotten in the future.

Hud and P-man are a sniper team operating out of firebase Foxtrot. They are good, maybe too good at their skill set, as their ability to perform and survive brings increasingly difficult and dangerous missions. A powerful evil other than Charlie is stalking Hud and P-man. Can Hud’s spiritual link to his beloved Daria tip the balance to level the playing field?

One of the unbroken rules of prairie winter storms is you do not go outside unless absolutely necessary, as you are at the mercy of the storm. Therefore unless sickness or death is eminent you do not leave the safety of the home.

The dogs are full of energy, until such time as I open the back door and they flounder into two feet of snow and zero visibility. About three leaps in the snow and they are back in the house content for another delicious nap.

And I am ready for some quality library time.

Best

Martin